San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1887-12-01
Anarchy In the United states-.-What II
Means.

AnnfcHl III liit tHiitu otAlta-- W hHt ~
Means.
Tho following passages from The
Standard, New York, Henry Georges
paper We regard as exceedingly per-
tinent TO the times. They occur in
IN editorial in that paper OF Nov. 10,
entitled "The Chicago Tragedy;
Anarchy Is an importation into the
United States. II is not an accident
that out of tho eight men convicted
in Chicago only one was OF American
birth, for the American elementamong
our avowed socialists and anarchists
is in hardly greater proportion. But
il anarchy did not find congenial soil
it would not perpetuate and propa-
cato itself on this side OF the ATTAIN
tic. The foreigner, imbued with
anarchistic principles in n country
where great standing armies maintain
avowed class governments, crosses
the ocean TO country where govern
ment is nominally based upon the will
of the people. II he found here that
political liberty brought social JUS
tice, that there was in the great re.
public room for all, work for all, and
the opportunity to make fair living
for all, his anarchism would soon be
forgotten, and the apostle of dynamite
would, amid any class Of our foreign
population, meet only ridicule and
derision. But what great bodies OF
foreigners who come here actually do
find, is that our political equality is
little better than q delusion and a
mockery, and that there exists here
the same bitter social injustice which
presses down the masses of Europe.
In country where there were no
tramps; in country where there
were no paupers; in country where
there were no men forced to beg for
work or aims; where there were no
families crowded together in mlser-
able tenement rooms; and no children
compelled to toll when they ought to
be at play, anarchy might be imported
and imported, but it could not exist,
much less take root. But amid con-
ditions that can be found to-day
within the American republic, anarchy
finds its proper soil and atmosphere.
If it is true that there are among
workingmen many who are disposed
to condone acts of violence when CON
mitted by those who assume to be
the champions of oppressed labor, is 1t
not true that there is the same blind
class feeling among the well-to-do !
When Pinkerton detectives shoot
down strikers; when superserviceable
policemen club socialists, is there any
outcry from those who deem them
selves conservative?
The bursting of dynamite bomb
in q Chicago street; the hanging OF
men in the United States for q crime
for which, had it been comitted in
Russia we would not have extradited
them; the fact that the idea Of law and
the idea of justice are already in the
minds of thousands 80 far divorced
that those whom the courts condemn
rs deserving the highest punishment
known to our code, are by consider
able bodies of our people thought of
as martyrs, are ominous things. There
is no danger, perhaps that organized
anarchism will ever prove formidable
in tho United States, but there is dan
ger that the minds of men becoming
familiarized with ideas of violence,
violence will here and there break out
There is danger that the frenzy born
of injustice on the one side and the
frenzy born of fear on the other, may,
by series of actions and reactions
lead to results the most disastrous.
The anarchists are not our most
dangerous class. Back OF the men
who died on Friday in Chicago with
q fortitude worthy of better cause;
back of the men who sympathize with
them and their deed, is a deep and
widespread sense of injustice. Those
who are most responsible for the ex-
istence of this are those who, having
time and opportunity and power to
enlighten the public mind, shut their
eyes to injustice and use their talents
and opportunities to prevent the
arousing of thought and conscience
and to decry any peaceful remedy
that may be proposed,